CHL’s Top Prospects Showcase Strengths in Sport Testing Combine

Guelph, ON – The next wave of NHL Draft talent were put to the test on Wednesday competing on and off the ice in advance of the 2018 Sherwin-Williams CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game.

All 40 of the Canadian Hockey League’s top prospects in attendance seized the opportunity to showcase their individual strengths with Sport Testing to gauge fitness and skill levels for NHL management and scouts.

The day began at the University of Guelph with a series of off-ice performance measures that included strength testing, agility runs, and leg power evaluations. The afternoon shifted to on-ice tests at Sleeman Centre including forward and backward sprints, reaction, weave agility, and transition agility drills each performed with and without a puck.

Forward Barrett Hayton of the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, ranked 6th by NHL Central Scouting in their Midterm Rankings, finished atop the overall standings in the off-ice portion which factored performance results from across the seven different fields. Defenceman Kevin Bahl of the Ottawa 67’s (ranked 30th by NHL CS) finished in second, followed by a pair of London Knights including defenceman Evan Bouchard (ranked 5th by NHL CS) in third and forward Liam Foudy (ranked 91st by NHL CS) in fourth, and forward Ryan McLeod of the Mississauga Steelheads (ranked 16th by NHL CS) finished in fifth.

Defenceman Noah Dobson of the Acadie-Bathurst Titan (ranked 8th by NHL CS) led the way in overall on-ice testing based on results across the 10 different categories. Fellow defenceman Ty Smith of the Spokane Chiefs (ranked 14th by NHL CS) tied for second with Knights forward Liam Foudy, followed by forward Dmitry Zavgorodniy of the Rimouski Oceanic (ranked 54th by NHL CS) in fourth, and top ranked North American skater Andrei Svechnikov of the Barrie Colts finished in fifth.

In specialized Sport Testing for goalies, Jacob Ingham of the Mississauga Steelheads (ranked 3rd by NHL CS) claimed top honours in an array of reaction, agility, and movement challenges.

Sport Testing scores provide valuable performance benchmarks to coaches and players at all levels of hockey with data collected at the Sherwin-Williams CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game shared with NHL Central Scouting and distributed to all 31 NHL teams.